The present invention generally relates to devices for allowing loading of ammunition into the magazine of weaponry, and in the most preferred form to devices for allowing loading of ammunition into double column magazines of weaponry.
Many automatic weapons utilize removable magazines which hold a multiple of rounds of ammunition. Such magazines include biased slides which push the rounds of ammunition to an open end of the magazine for access by the weaponry. It is then necessary to depress such biased slides when loading ammunition into the magazine. Many such magazines include depression knobs formed on the slide which may be manually depressed such as by pushing by the thumb. Because of the concentrated force placed on the knob by the sliding bias, often the slide is depressed by pushing the knob against the bottom surface of a table or the like. Auto-loaders also exist which allow rounds of ammunition to be injected into the magazine. But such auto-loaders typically are not taken into the field because of their size, thus requiring the user to possess several magazines which are preloaded with the anticipated number of rounds of ammunition to be utilized prior to going out into the field. Thus, a need exists for loading devices which may be taken out into the field and which allow ease of magazine loading. This need is especially great for small caliber handguns which are often utilized for target shooting where a large number of rounds of ammunition are expended and which are often utilized in field conditions where tables or the like and auto-loaders are not easily accessible. Further, a need exists for loading devices for double column magazines where the biasing force of the slide in the magazine is especially great making manual loading by manually forcing the ammunition into the magazine against the slide bias especially difficult.